What are Google Dynamic Search Ads, and is AI Max replacing them?

A dynamic ad target says which pages a dynamic ad group may match searches to. Google’s help lists eight types:

• Categories: sets of your pages organized by theme, which Google makes from your site’s content. They can take a day or two to appear.
• Landing pages from your standard ad groups: every page your account’s search ads already send clicks to. Google recommends it to advertisers new to Dynamic Search Ads.
• URL Equals: one page, by its address.
• URL Contains: pages whose address contains a piece of text set off by separators, as services is in /services/.
• Page title and Page content: pages whose title, or whose text, contains words you choose. Google warns that page title targeting can be prone to error.
• Custom label: pages in a page feed that carry a label you gave them.
• All webpages: every page of your domain that Google’s crawlers have found.

You add them under Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Dynamic ad targets, and an account can hold 25,000. A page feed is a spreadsheet of page URLs and custom labels, uploaded under Tools › Business data. The campaign’s Dynamic Search Ads setting chooses between the URLs in your feed only and the feed together with Google’s index of your site, and Google says a new feed takes 2 to 14 days on average to crawl.

The quickest setup is one dynamic ad group targeting All webpages, and it is hard to steer, because everything in an ad group is shared. Every page it reaches shows the same description, since the description is all of the ad you write. And where you bid by hand, Google asks for a bid for each target, so one target is one bid for the whole site.

Google’s advice points the other way: create ad groups for the categories that perform well, so you can set bids and text for each, and give All webpages negative targets for the pages you never want search traffic sent to. Don’t go too narrow either: it says a target with too few indexed pages may bring no extra traffic.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms, open the campaign or its dynamic ad group, and set the date range to the last 30 days.
2. 02At the top right of the table, switch the view to Search terms and landing pages from Dynamic Search Ads. It shows each search with the headline Google generated and the landing page it chose.
3. 03The dropdown at the top right of the table also offers Landing page, for the pages alone with what each took, and Search terms, for the searches alone.
4. 04Sort by Conversions, or by Clicks if you don’t track conversions, and read from the top.
5. 05Sort the pages into the parts of your site, each a set of pages one ad could be written for, and add up each part.

Two things to know as you read it. The landing page shown is the final URL after redirects, so a sold-out page that redirects to your home page is reported as the home page. And in the report’s ordinary Search terms view, a search a Dynamic Search Ad matched returns no keyword and reads Exact as its match type, because dynamic ad targets have none.

A dynamic ad group takes two kinds of exclusion: pages, as negative dynamic ad targets, and searches, as negative keywords. To exclude pages:

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Dynamic ad targets and open the Negative dynamic ad targets tab.
2. 02Select the plus button, and choose whether the exclusion is added to a campaign or to an ad group.
3. 03Enter exact URLs, one to a line, or build a rule on the page’s URL, its title or its content, or exclude a category. Then select Save.

Google treats a URL with a capital letter as a different URL from the same one in lower case, so paste addresses as they are, and it strongly recommends excluding pages that contain words like sold out or unavailable. For Cedar & Pine the exclusions are two exact URLs, the delivery and careers pages, and a rule on URL for the blog.

The report is the shortcut: in its Dynamic Search Ads views, tick a row and select Add as negative URL for a page or Add as negative keyword for a search. Negative keywords are added as in any campaign, and Google says they factor in even though a Dynamic Search Ad uses no keywords. The wasted search terms guide covers finding the searches worth excluding.

Google says adding Dynamic Search Ads doesn’t change how your keyword ads perform, and that a Dynamic Search Ad is ranked the way a keyword ad is. Before the auction, Google settles which of your own ads enters it:

• A keyword identical to the search comes first. Google prefers an exact match keyword identical to the search, then a phrase or broad match keyword identical to it.
• A dynamic ad group counts as a keyword that isn’t identical. Among those, Google picks the ad with the highest Ad Rank.
• So it can take a search from a looser keyword. Where a search is a phrase or broad match to one of your keywords, Google may show the Dynamic Search Ad when its Ad Rank is higher.
• Two dynamic ad targets: in one campaign, Google serves the page most relevant to the search. In different campaigns, the targets compete in the auction.

Identical is narrow. Google counts a spell-corrected search as identical, and not a plural or a synonym. So a catch-all dynamic ad group takes searches that a keyword ad group, with ads written for them, was built to answer, and the search terms report shows each one under the dynamic ad group. To keep a search with a keyword’s ad, add it as an exact match keyword, which Google prefers to everything else when it is identical to the search.

Google’s help page on Dynamic Search Ads now opens with a notice: starting in February 2027, campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads will automatically be upgraded to AI Max. Google announced the upgrade on April 15, 2026, for that September. On June 11, 2026 it moved what it calls the Dynamic Search Ads sunset and auto-upgrade to February 2027, saying advertisers needed more time. The broad match keywords setting kept its September date, which the broad match guide covers.

• Can you still create one? By Google’s own dates, yes. Its developer blog says the ability to create them was restored on June 15, 2026, and is removed in January 2027. Its help still gives the steps, and none of the help pages read for this guide gives a date for that ending.
• What happens to the ones you have? From February 2027, Google says, campaigns with dynamic ad groups move to standard ad groups with all three AI Max features on, and their URL controls preserved.
• What does Google recommend? Not waiting. It strongly recommends moving to AI Max now, to keep full control over how the campaign is set up, and offers an experiment to test it first.

Google’s pages don’t agree on every detail. Its April post still says in its body that from September you can’t create new campaigns with Dynamic Search Ads, beneath the June note that moved the dates. And its developer blog has the campaigns left in February upgraded to Performance Max or AI-powered Search campaigns, where the help pages say AI Max, which this guide follows.

Google’s AI Max isn’t a campaign type. Google calls it an optimization layer inside a Search campaign, and it is three features turned on together:

• Search term matching finds searches beyond your keywords, through broad match and through your landing pages and assets. You can turn it off in each ad group.
• Text customization, formerly automatically created assets, writes headlines and descriptions from your ads, landing pages and assets. It’s a campaign setting.
• Final URL expansion lets Google replace an ad’s final URL with the page of your site it judges more relevant to the search. It’s a campaign setting that needs text customization on: turn that off and final URL expansion goes off too.

The last two together do what a Dynamic Search Ad did, and Google calls AI Max an evolution of it. Two URL controls take the place of dynamic ad targets. URL inclusions are set for an ad group: with them on and final URL expansion off, Google uses only the URLs you name as that ad group’s landing pages, and with both on it can use yours and others it expects to do better. URL exclusions are set for the campaign. Page title and page content rules don’t come across whole: after the upgrade they are read-only, to remove and not to edit.

Google says these features need Smart Bidding on conversions to work effectively, and that search term matching won’t work with Manual CPC. To upgrade a campaign yourself:

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns, open the Settings tab and tick the campaign.
2. 02In the Dynamic Search Ads settings panel, find the callout to upgrade to AI Max and select Upgrade.
3. 03Read the dialog. Your dynamic ad group converts to standard ad groups, each Dynamic Search Ad becomes a responsive search ad for which Google generates the minimum of assets required, and any target AI Max doesn’t support becomes read-only. Select Upgrade to confirm.

The old ads keep running until the new responsive search ads pass policy review, and are then paused. To test first, build a custom experiment: at its Make Changes stage, expand the Dynamic Search Ads settings of the draft campaign and select Upgrade campaign.

Google says the automatic upgrade mirrors your old setup, so a catch-all comes across as a catch-all, and the upgrade is the moment to divide it. Give each part of the site a standard ad group with that part’s pages as its URL inclusions and a responsive search ad written for them: for Cedar & Pine, sofas, rugs and tables. Put the pages that sell nothing in the campaign’s URL exclusions. Two cautions from Google: pinned headlines aren’t used once URL inclusions are on or final URL expansion picks another page, and a tracking template should be checked against a page Google chose before AI Max goes on, which the tracking templates guide covers.

Afterwards, Campaigns › Insights and reports › Landing pages marks the pages AI Max chose in its Selected by column, and the search terms report’s Search terms and ad combinations view shows each search with its headline and landing page.

Every day Goldbeater reads the enabled ad groups of every enabled Search campaign that hasn’t passed its end date, and the pages each ad group’s clicks landed on in the last 30 days. It raises a campaign with exactly one enabled dynamic ad group whose clicks landed on more than one page. A dynamic ad group aimed at a single page has nothing to divide, so it isn’t raised.

That is the table above: 412 clicks to 10 pages through one ad group. The finding lists the pages, most clicked first, as the list to split by. It is raised low, since nothing is lost today, and it is advice: upgrade the campaign yourself and split it by theme as you do. Goldbeater never asks for more dynamic ad groups, which the upgrade would replace, and drafts no change, because how the pages divide is yours to judge.

Once a campaign is on AI Max, a second check reads its settings. Goldbeater raises a Search campaign with AI Max on, or a Performance Max campaign, where text customization or final URL expansion is on, whether you set it or Google’s default did. Some advertisers keep them on deliberately, so it is raised low, with the change that turns them off offered, and medium, with that change recommended, where it is the one campaign of its kind with them on and every other has them off.

Where final URL expansion is on, the finding sets the clicks that landed on pages Google chose beside the ones that landed on yours, with what each converted. If Google’s pages converted more of their clicks, beyond chance, Goldbeater doesn’t recommend turning it off. On Performance Max the same check raises the image and video settings that let Google edit yours and add its own.

The audit checklist has both lines with where to find them in Google Ads.

What are Dynamic Search Ads?

Search ads with no keywords, which Google abbreviates DSA. Google matches a search to a page of your site, generates the headline from that page and sends the click there. You write the description, and choose which pages it may use with dynamic ad targets.

Are Dynamic Search Ads going away?

Yes. Google’s help pages say that starting in February 2027, campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads will automatically be upgraded to AI Max. Google first announced the upgrade for September 2026, and moved it on June 11, 2026.

Can I still create a Dynamic Search Ad?

By Google’s own dates, yes. Its developer blog says the ability to create them was restored on June 15, 2026 and is removed in January 2027. Google’s help still gives the steps, and none of the help pages read for this guide gives a date for that ending.

What is the difference between Dynamic Search Ads and AI Max?

A Dynamic Search Ad runs in a dynamic ad group, which has dynamic ad targets and no keywords. AI Max is three features on a Search campaign’s standard ad groups: search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion, with URL inclusions and exclusions where dynamic ad targets were. Google calls it an evolution of Dynamic Search Ads.

What is final URL expansion in Google Ads?

A campaign setting, in AI Max for Search campaigns and in Performance Max, that lets Google send a click to another page of your site than the ad’s final URL when it expects that page to do better. In AI Max it needs text customization on, and URL exclusions keep pages out of it.

Do negative keywords work with Dynamic Search Ads?

Yes. Google says negative keywords factor in even though Dynamic Search Ads use no keywords, and that AI Max respects them too. Pages are excluded separately: with negative dynamic ad targets, or with URL exclusions in AI Max.